A friend of mine once told me of how when she was in college she moved into a new apartment and was awoken during her first night there by a persistent 'tap' 'tap'
noise. Turning on the lights, she walked out into the freshly painted living
room, lifted her head to the ceiling and found it covered with roaches stuck in
the still wet paint. The 'tap' 'tap' sound? The paint coated roaches falling to
the floor.
Myself, I
was once held captive to one in my apartment in Montreal. I was too afraid to jump off the bed and run past it to
the nearest heavy shoe. I stress heavy, because it simply has to be a heavy shoe. The heaviest shoe
imaginable, because those things just don't die. I remember my husband trying to convince
me that there was no need to worry because cockroaches always send out a 'scout' and if the 'scout' doesn't
return then the rest will stay away. (Right ...)
Apartment
hunting tip? Be sure to always pound on the kitchen counter and slam the cupboard doors. (Blech!)
So in light of that little walk down memory lane, I
have decided to take a closer look at our nuclear apocalypse surviving friends; who will
no doubt be partaking in the sweet pleasure of Twinkies if that day ever comes.
La Cucaracha
The English word 'cockroach' was derived from the Spanish cucaracha.[1]
.jpg) |
| A 40- to 50-million-year-old cockroach in Baltic amber [1] |
The first fossils of modern cockroaches appeared in the
early Cretaceous period.[1] (Approximately 145 ± 4 to 66 million years ago) [26]
Cockroaches are mainly nocturnal, [2] and
will typically run away when exposed to light. (For the record, this has not been my experience, but okay …)
 |
| A roach leg. |
The spines on their legs help in locomotion on difficult
terrain, and have been used as inspiration for robotic legs.[3][4]
Cockroaches leave chemical trails in their feces. Other
cockroaches will follow these trails to discover sources of food and water.[1]
Research has shown group-based decision-making is responsible for complex behaviors such as resource allocation. In a study where 50 cockroaches were placed in a dish with three shelters with a capacity for 40 insects in each, the insects arranged themselves in two shelters with 25 insects in each, leaving the third shelter empty. When the capacity of the shelters was increased to more than 50 insects per shelter, all of the cockroaches arranged themselves in one shelter.[5]
Most cockroach species are about the size of a thumbnail.
Though according to Guinness World Records,
the longest cockroach species is Megaloblatta
longipennis, which can reach
97 mm in length and 45 mm across. [6] (And yes, I double-checked the latter part of that Latin name as one can never be too sure with Wikipedia, but it's legit.)
They hiss; they chirp; and in the presence of a potential
mate, some may also tap the surface in a rhythmic, repetitive manner. [7]
Cockroaches are generally omnivorous. [1]
Some species of cockroach are capable of remaining active
for a month without food; and they are generally well suited to survive for some time on limited resources, such as
the glue from the back of postage stamps. [8]
Some can go without air for 45 minutes. In one experiment, cockroaches were
able to recover from being submerged underwater for half an hour. [9] Japanese
cockroach nymphs survived twelve hours at -5 °C to -8 °C in
laboratory experiments. [10]
 |
| Head of a Periplaneta Americana [1] |
Experiments on decapitated specimens of several species
of cockroach found a variety of behavioral functionality remained, including
shock avoidance and escape behavior.[11][12] The
severed head is able to survive and wave its antennae for several hours, or
longer when refrigerated and given nutrients.[11]
So, will they survive a nuclear war? Cockroaches have a
much higher radiation resistance than vertebrates. However, they are not
exceptionally radiation-resistant compared to other insects, such as the fruit
fly.[13]
The cockroach's ability to withstand radiation better
than humans can be explained through the cell cycle. Cells are most
vulnerable to the effects of radiation when they are dividing. A cockroach's
cells divide only once each time it molts, which is weekly at most in a
juvenile roach. Since not all cockroaches would be molting at the same time,
many would be unaffected by an acute burst of radiation, but lingering
radioactive fallout would still be harmful.[14]
Cockroaches can passively transport microbes on their
body surfaces including those that are potentially dangerous to humans.[15][16]
They are also linked with allergic reactions in humans. [17][18]
One
of the proteins that triggers allergic reactions is tropomyosin.[19] These
allergens are also linked with asthma.[20]
 |
| Emerald cockroach wasp, Ampulex compressa [27] |
Ampulex wasps (Emerald Cockroach wasp) sting the roach more than once and in a specific way. The first sting is directed at nerve ganglia in the cockroach's thorax, causing temporary paralysis for up to five minutes. The second sting is directed into a region of the cockroach's brain that controls the escape reflex, among other things. [21] When the cockroach has recovered from the first sting it makes no attempt to flee. The wasp clips the antennae with its mandibles and drinks some of the hemolymph before walking backwards and dragging the roach by its clipped antennae to a burrow, where an egg will be laid on it. The wasp larva feeds on the subdued living cockroach.
The process of extracting chemicals from farmed
cockroaches for use as medical compounds has been patented, and shown to have
promise in remedying burns, heart disease, hepatitis, trauma, etc. [22][23]
Nadezhda, a
cockroach sent into space by Russian scientists during Foton-M test, became
the first terrestrial creature to give birth in space. [24]
(And I'm sure 'space' thanks us for that.)
RELATED
Jeez People, Enough With the Cockroaches in Your Colons Already Discover August 7, 2012
REFERENCES
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cockroach
[2] University of California Integrated Pest Management Program. Ipm.ucdavis.edu.
[3] Ritzmann, Roy E.; Quinn, Roger D.; Fischer, Martin S. (2004). "Convergent evolution and locomotion through complex terrain by insects, vertebrates and robots". Arthropod Structure & Development 33 (3): 361–379. doi:10.1016/j.asd.2004.05.001.
[4] Spagna, J C; Goldman, D I; Lin, P-C; Koditschek, D E; Full, Robert J (2007). "Distributed mechanical feedback control of rapid running on challenging terrain". Bioinspir Biomim 2 (1): 9–18. doi:10.1088/1748-3182/2/1/002. PMID 17671322.
[5] Jennifer Viegas. "Cockroaches Make Group Decisions". Discovery Channel.
[6] Guinness World Records: World's Largest Cockroach
[7] CockRoach (Blattella Germanica). Archived 8 August 2011 at WebCite pest911.com
[8] Mullen, Gary; Lance Durden, Cameron Connor, Daniel Perera, Lynsey Little, Michael Groves and Rebecca Erskine (2002). Medical and Veterinary Entomology. Amsterdam: Academic Press. p. 32. ISBN 0-12-510451-0.
[9] MythBusters – Drowning Cockroaches?. YouTube (2008-07-23).
[10] Tanaka, Kazuhiro; Tanaka, Seiji (October 1997). "Winter Survival and Freeze Tolerance in a Northern Cockroach, Periplaneta japonica (Blattidae : Dictyoptera)". Zoological Science (The Zoological Society of Japan) 14 (5): 849–853. doi:10.2108/zsj.14.849. ISSN 0289-0003.
[11] Berenbaum, May (30 September 2009). The Earwig's Tail: A Modern Bestiary of Multi-legged Legends. Harvard University Press. pp. 53–54. ISBN 978-0-674-03540-9.
[12] Choi, Charles (15 March 2007). "Fact or fiction?: a cockroach can live without its head". Scientific American (Scientific American, a Division of Nature America, Inc.).
[13] "Cockroaches & Radiation".
[14] Kunkel, Joseph G. "Are cockroaches resistant to radiation?".
[15] Rivault, C.; Cloarec, A.; Guyader, A. Le (1993). "Bacterial load of cockroaches in relation to urban environment". Epidemiology and Infection 110 (2): 317–325. doi:10.1017/S0950268800068254. PMC 2272268. PMID 8472775.
[16] Elgderi, RM; Ghenghesh, KS; Berbash, N. (2006). "Carriage by the German cockroach (Blattella germanica) of multiple-antibiotic-resistant bacteria that are potentially pathogenic to humans, in hospitals and households in Tripoli, Libya". Ann Trop Med Parasitol 100 (1): 55–62. doi:10.1179/136485906X78463. PMID 16417714.
[17] Bernton, H.S.; Brown, H. (1964). "Insect Allergy Preliminary Studies of the Cockroach". J. Allergy 35 (506–513): 506–13. doi:10.1016/0021-8707(64)90082-6. PMID 14226309.
[18] Kutrup, B (2003). "Cockroach Infestation in Some Hospitals in Trabzon, Turkey". Turk. J. Zool. 27: 73–77.
[19] Santos, AB; Chapman, MD; Aalberse, RC; Vailes, LD; Ferriani, VP; Oliver, C; Rizzo, MC; Naspitz, CK et al. (1999). "Cockroach allergens and asthma in Brazil: identification of tropomyosin as a major allergen with potential cross-reactivity with mite and shrimp allergens". The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology 104 (2): 329–337. doi:10.1016/S0091-6749(99)70375-1. PMID 10452753. |displayauthors= suggested (help)
[20] Kang, B; Vellody, D; Homburger, H; Yunginger, JW (1979). "Cockroach cause of allergic asthma. Its specificity and immunologic profile". The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology 63 (2): 80–86. doi:10.1016/0091-6749(79)90196-9. PMID 83332.
[21] http://howtousediatomaceousearth.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/The-IPM-Practitioner.pdf
[22] Piper, Ross (2007), Extraordinary Animals: An Encyclopedia of Curious and Unusual Animals, Greenwood Press.
[23] http://www.google.com/patents/WO2006056097A1?cl=en
[24] http://ict.sagepub.com/content/early/2011/06/29/1534735411413467.abstract
[25] http://en.ria.ru/science/20071023/85202812.html
[26] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cretaceous
[27] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ampulex
IMAGE CREDITS
"Baltic amber inclusions - Cockroach (Pterygota, Neoptera, Dictyoptera, Blattodea)" by Anders L. Damgaard - www.amber-inclusions.dk - Baltic-amber-beetle - Own work. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0-2.5-2.0-1.0 via Wikimedia Commons - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Baltic_amber_inclusions_-_Cockroach_(Pterygota,_Neoptera,_Dictyoptera,_Blattodea).JPG#mediaviewer/File:Baltic_amber_inclusions_-_Cockroach_(Pterygota,_Neoptera,_Dictyoptera,_Blattodea).JPG
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